TheGlyphstone wrote:Prequel seems like it'd be much richer in terms of story potential. Unless a new, bigger and badder enemy appears, the post-AT narrative is pretty solidly laid out already...humanity reverse-engineers the Troll ship, obliterates the Kanga scouts, goes out and crushes the Kangas before they become a threat, Thuselas never exist except in Milla+Dick's descendants (easily rendered extinct by one generation being only male children).

Pre-AT, though, gives us the First Kanga War, Milla's adventures as a young hotshot pilot, all sorts of interesting stuff to explore.

Pretty much my thinking.

The Kangas from the original time line won't be able to pull together another force to try wiping out humanity in the past; so unlikely for advanced tech enemies to show up before expected. (And if they did pull together such a force it probably wouldn't have the bad luck that dropped it around the year 2000; it's succeed in ending up back in pre-history of that timeline's humanity and wipe out the earth without any fuss. Boring story)

Any conflict in the post AT timeline would seem to be research or socio-political; not military. (Unless RFC went into Clancy territory with a conventional war or two over access to the technology).

But Pre-AT gives plenty of room for the desperate original timeline struggles with first Kanga contact; or the mid/late-war aspects with Milla. Maybe cover some analog to the Battle of the Bulge; the Kangas' last major (conventional) effort to reverse the tide of the war.

Prequel seems like it'd be much richer in terms of story potential. Unless a new, bigger and badder enemy appears, the post-AT narrative is pretty solidly laid out already...humanity reverse-engineers the Troll ship, obliterates the Kanga scouts, goes out and crushes the Kangas before they become a threat, Thuselas never exist except in Milla+Dick's descendants (easily rendered extinct by one generation being only male children).

TheGlyphstone wrote:Prequel seems like it'd be much richer in terms of story potential. Unless a new, bigger and badder DafontShowboxAdam4adam enemy appears, the post-AT narrative is pretty solidly laid out already...humanity reverse-engineers the Troll ship, obliterates the Kanga scouts, goes out and crushes the Kangas before they become a threat, Thuselas never exist except in Milla+Dick's descendants (easily rendered extinct by one generation being only male children).

Pre-AT, though, gives us the First Kanga War, Milla's adventures as a young hotshot pilot, all sorts of interesting stuff to explore.

Pretty much my thinking.

The Kangas from the original time line won't be able to pull together another force to try wiping out humanity in the past; so unlikely for advanced tech enemies to show up before expected. (And if they did pull together such a force it probably wouldn't have the bad luck that dropped it around the year 2000; it's succeed in ending up back in pre-history of that timeline's humanity and wipe out the earth without any fuss. Boring story)

Any conflict in the post AT timeline would seem to be research or socio-political; not military. (Unless RFC went into Clancy territory with a conventional war or two over access to the technology).

But Pre-AT gives plenty of room for the desperate original timeline struggles with first Kanga contact; or the mid/late-war aspects with Milla. Maybe cover some analog to the Battle of the Bulge; the Kangas' last major (conventional) effort to reverse the tide of the war.

zimkim wrote:Prequel seems like it'd be much richer in terms of story potential. Unless a new, bigger and badder enemy appears, the post-AT narrative is pretty solidly laid out already...humanity reverse-engineers the Troll ship, obliterates the Kanga scouts, goes out and crushes the Kangas before they become a threat, Thuselas never exist except in Milla+Dick's descendants (easily rendered extinct by one generation being only male children).

I have one disagreement here--there's an aspect of the symbiote that he missed the social implications of: She chose to inject him as a last-resort treatment. I would expect this to be done on a large scale. If death is imminent the logical course of action is to put them in a coma and inject them.

Look at countries which accept euthanasia--upwards of 10% of the population chooses that option when death is imminent. I would think anyone choosing suicide for medical reasons would take the gamble on the symbiote instead.

zimkim wrote:Prequel seems like it'd be much richer in terms of story potential. Unless a new, bigger and badder enemy appears, the post-AT narrative is pretty solidly laid out already...humanity reverse-engineers the Troll ship, obliterates the Kanga scouts, goes out and crushes the Kangas before they become a threat, Thuselas never exist except in Milla+Dick's descendants (easily rendered extinct by one generation being only male children).

I have one disagreement here--there's an aspect of the symbiote that he missed the social implications of: She chose to inject him as a last-resort treatment. I would expect this to be done on a large scale. If death is imminent the logical course of action is to put them in a coma and inject them.

Look at countries which accept euthanasia--upwards of 10% of the population chooses that option when death is imminent. I would think anyone choosing suicide for medical reasons would take the gamble on the symbiote instead.

Didn't overlook it. Just didn't do anything with it . . . yet, at least.

Didn't happen (much) in Milla's time because of (1) incredibly more effective medical sciences, which made dying more or less optional until you just got tired and decided it was time to go and (2) the prejudice (read bigotry) against Thuselahs. There were quite a lot of "last-ditch" Thuselah conversions in her time (and remember her comments about "normals" who saw Thuselah women as a way to guarantee their children, at least, would be potentially immortal), but vastly extended "normal" lifetimes were pretty much a given. What medical science couldn't do was give you effectively perpetual youth and the other healing/survival benefits of the symbiote. Going for those, when the chance of surviving the conversion process was so slight, made it absolutely a last-ditch option, and quite a lot of those who had reached such dire straits had already lived extremely long lives (by our standards) and were effectively "ready to go." Not all of them, by any stretch of the imagination, but a lot.

There is a potential sequel in the works which may (or may not) look at some of the same issues in a 21st-22nd century kind of context.

BTW, this is what is technically known, in the writing business, as "a tease."

I have honestly all but given up hope on a return to this universe, primarily because you have so many others that are more recently active. Norfrerssa, Gordian, Safehold, Dahak(ok not so active), the series that shall not be named, hells gate, honor, what every you hatched up with Jim Butcher and Larry

runsforcelery wrote:Didn't overlook it. Just didn't do anything with it . . . yet, at least.

Didn't happen (much) in Milla's time because of (1) incredibly more effective medical sciences, which made dying more or less optional until you just got tired and decided it was time to go and (2) the prejudice (read bigotry) against Thuselahs. There were quite a lot of "last-ditch" Thuselah conversions in her time (and remember her comments about "normals" who saw Thuselah women as a way to guarantee their children, at least, would be potentially immortal), but vastly extended "normal" lifetimes were pretty much a given. What medical science couldn't do was give you effectively perpetual youth and the other healing/survival benefits of the symbiote. Going for those, when the chance of surviving the conversion process was so slight, made it absolutely a last-ditch option, and quite a lot of those who had reached such dire straits had already lived extremely long lives (by our standards) and were effectively "ready to go." Not all of them, by any stretch of the imagination, but a lot.

There is a potential sequel in the works which may (or may not) look at some of the same issues in a 21st-22nd century kind of context.

BTW, this is what is technically known, in the writing business, as "a tease."

runsforcelery wrote:Didn't happen (much) in Milla's time because of (1) incredibly more effective medical sciences, which made dying more or less optional until you just got tired and decided it was time to go and (2) the prejudice (read bigotry) against Thuselahs.

The Apocalypse Troll wrote:"Eighty-three?" he asked finally, amazed by how calm he sounded, and she nodded. "Just what is the average life span where you come from, Milla?"

"About a hundred and twenty," she said steadily, and he shook his head.

I don't see that as people living until they got tired of it, unless "tired of it" was because of poor health--something that would encourage taking the gamble.

And being a target of bigotry, especially since the bigots didn't have much real power to do harm, is a lot better than being dead.

Going for those, when the chance of surviving the conversion process was so slight, made it absolutely a last-ditch option, and quite a lot of those who had reached such dire straits had already lived extremely long lives (by our standards) and were effectively "ready to go." Not all of them, by any stretch of the imagination, but a lot.

Of course it's a Hail Mary but if you're kept unconscious during the process it's no worse than the alternative and it could be better.

Garth 2 wrote:lets just hope Milla and Richard don't have a son. After all would you want that conversation.... "oh, by the way son you can never, never, I can't stress this enough, ever have unprotected sex.""why, Dad?""well, um... you would probably kill your partner"

99% percent chance, but I think that might only apply if she carries the baby to term, or attempts to, immediate abortion might increase chances.

What is more likely to cause problems is the inability to get blow jobs.

This really isn't a reply. But word is, is that RFC has signed up for another book with a collaborative author. I'm not sure if it was a prequel, or a sequel though.